• Home
  • BlizzPro Fireside Gatherings Recap

BlizzPro Fireside Gatherings Recap

by - 10 years ago

This week Blizzard released the new card backs for their Fireside Gathering promotion. All you had to do was use the “players nearby” feature or play against friends on your friends list connected to the same wifi (subnet) as you. If you played 3 games against 2 different people in the same session you would be awarded the new card backs.

As part of this promotion, Blizzard used the community around the world to form a grassroots campaign for these Fireside Gatherings. Players joined together at locations such as coffee houses, bars, and other venues to meet and play against people who have enjoyed the game.

BlizzPro decided to hold two of these events, the one I organized was in Kansas City at Snow & Co. The other event Robert Wing (Zenstyle) organized in Orlando at a Starbucks in a Barnes and Noble. With little time to prepare for our events we only expected maybe 10 people tops to show up to them. Color us surprised when around 50 showed up for the Kansas City event and 35 showed up for the Orlando event.

Hearthstone by itself is a really fun and casual game. I have to say, it’s even more so when you’re sitting in a room with 49 other people who are just as passionate about the game as you are. At the Kansas City event I arrived about 10 minutes before the start of the event and there were already about 10 people inside the venue already playing. I handed out name tags and we proceeded to write our battletags on them so people would know how they could add to their friend list and play. There were no rules, it was just playing your decks and talking about the plays you made.

Many stories were being told during the course of the event about the games as they happened and many old war stories were told as well with people’s experiences in the ranking ladder. Some new comers joined as well with some people just starting the game for the first time. Overall, everyone was having fun and chatting while they were playing, it reminded me of some of the old days of Friday Night magic back in the late 90s with the excitement surrounding the game itself.

People would challenge each other and sometimes go sit next to or across the person they were playing as they would chat with each other while playing. Many laughs were had and my friends list has increased substantially now with local enthusiasts who love the game as much as I do.

Both Robert’s experience and mine were close to the same. We were asked many times whether or not we would be doing events like this again because people had so much fun and everyone was surprised by the turnout. I know I was asked no less than 10 times if next time we can have a tournament. Overall it was a great experience and a great way to meet local fans and there are a lot of them out there.

If you’re ever planning on hosting a Fireside Gathering yourself in the future there are some things you should be prepared for. Find a venue that can fit all of the people who were interested. Snow and Co. had plenty of space for us but their wifi had issues handling everyone connecting to it. Starbucks in Orlando on the other hand didn’t seem to appreciate all of the people descending on them and next time that group is going to need to find a better venue to host.

Make sure you have a plan going in. Unfortunately these events were in their nature planned very last minute because Blizzard gave us very little time up front. People will want to have some sort of tournament while others will just want to play. Having a tournament, even if you can’t give any prizes, is definitely worth considering but make sure you have a plan in place on how to run one and you’ll need some volunteers to help with the logistics of it.

Last of all, make your event fun and inviting for anyone to come in and play. We had new players, very casual players, and players who were obsessed with the current meta in competitive play. They all have everything in common though and that’s their love of Hearthstone. As long as you make your event safe, comforting, and inviting people will enjoy it.

BlizzPro plans on hosting these events again in the future and we might even be branching out to some other cities as well. So keep watching to see when these get announced!

Here are some pictures and comments from Twitter from our events:

Photos below of the Orlando event taken by @MistressOphea (thank you so much for taking these great photos!)


posted in Hearthstone
JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


Comments are closed.